Noob Questions

Hi All,

I recently got a macbook pro for design purposes and everything is going swimmingly.

It came to my attention that I'm able to play PC games on my mac without much difficulty. So I did some research and from my understanding basically all I do is get a copy of windows, install it with bootcamp that comes with snow leopard and away I go.

My questions are:

Am i wrong in my understanding?

Which windows should I get?

If there's already a thread for this please feel free to direct me

Any help/info is much appreciated!

Nope your understanding is pretty much spot on. As far as games go, avoid Windows XP because of the lack of the newer DirectX if your just going to be using it to play games, the Standard Windows 7 Home Premium should do the trick for you. Its what I use to play the occasional game on mine

Thanks!

Purely for gaming purposes: would I be at a disadvantage if I used Vista over windows 7?

Not really, I just prefer 7 over Vista any day, especially the way it handles ram but im assuming your recent Pro has 4GB of Ram so as long as you are using a 64bit OS you should be fine with Vista

I do have the 4 gig ram, though not sure about the 64 bit OS?

Apologies, Im not very tech savvy.

It should tell you on the disc wether it's 32 or 64. I can't remember the exact value but on the 32 you are limited to having access to just over 3GB ram

Again, I apologise, but if I only have access to 3gb what does that mean?

I found a cheap copy of vista on ebay and it says : Includes 32-bit & 64-bit discs, and 64-bit Service Pack 1 disc

Having a 32bit operating system has limitations in the amount of memory the system has access to, meaning the maximum is just over 3GB where on a 64bit it is a way way higher ceiling. I'm on the iPhone right now so will give you a link to more info when I get back to the office but if you google 32bit vs 64bit it should give you a good explanation

If you can though if you get those discs on eBay, stick with the 64 bit

thanks a bunch!

One more question though

Say if you only use the bootcamp/windows to play one or two games, are there any side effects/problems or anything I should be aware of when you use your mac osx 90% of the time?

Nope, the two operatings systems are separated from each other. Changes on one will not affect the other

Awesome, thanks again for your assistance.